Filed To Story: The Scarlet Vengeance: Justice of a Framed Beauty Novel (Grace & Jason)
She chuckled awkwardly. “You already apologized to me earlier.”
“Does it hurt?” Looking at the red marks, he thought of what Kyla had said. Grace had grabbed her all the way to the hospital, but Valda Theller said nothing.
“It doesn’t hurt so much anymore. It’ll go away in a couple of days,” she said.
“Have you applied any ointment?” he asked.
She blinked. “Do I need to apply ointment for this?”
He said, “Do you have any ointment for blood stasis and pain relief?”
“I do, but you don’t need medicine for such injuries-
He interrupted her before she could finish her sentence. “Where is it?” he asked, staring at her.
Valda Theller could only take out the ointment obediently. Brian opened the ointment cap and applied it for her.
As he smeared the ointment on the red marks on her wrist with his fingertips, Valda Theller felt a strange sensation spreading through her body. Her heartbeat quickened.
‘What’s wrong with me? All he’s doing is applying ointment for me. Why did my heartbeat quicken?
‘I mustn’t and can’t fall for this man! There’s no way it’s gonna work out between us. He loves another woman.’
Valda Theller tried hard to warn herself not to care about Brian. When he finally finished applying the ointment, she quickly withdrew her hand. “Have a seat while I prepare dinner.”
She could not wait to leave, but Brian stopped her. “You can’t make dinner when you’ve just applied ointment on your hand. Let me do it.”
Valda Theller widened her eyes in surprise. ‘I didn’t hear it wrong, did I? He wants to… make dinner?’
Then, Valda Theller saw Brian take off his jacket, roll up his shirt sleeves, and walk into the kitchen.
His long fingers opened the plastic bag containing vegetables she had bought from the supermarket.
He took the vegetables out one by one.
He washed the vegetables, cut them, then cooked them… Valda Theller found that Brian was indeed cooking.
Once the food was ready, Valda Theller spoke with slight embarrassment, “I’m sorry for troubling you today.” “I don’t think it’s too much trouble,” he said.
She lowered her head and began digging in. For some reason, she felt awkward facing him.
Maybe what had happened in the hospital today made her understand her position more clearly.
Brian’s eyes glimmered as he watched Valda Theller’s face almost glued to the bowl. He could feel her estrangement from him.
He caused all this.
Jason said everyone could tell that he did not love her. Jason and Kyla could tell that. Was he going to let Grace realize that too?
Brian felt a sudden pain in his heart as he recalled Grace’s pale and weak appearance in the hospital bed.
He did not want Grace to have any mood swings again. He could not let Grace learn he had no feelings for Valda Theller.
“Can you be a real couple with me?” His hoarse voice suddenly rang out. Valda Theller suddenly stopped eating and looked up blankly at the person in front of her. “What… do you mean?”
Brian murmured, “Ad I said, let’s become a real couple. We’ll stop acting and date seriously.”
She blinked. “Why are you… suddenly saying that?” She could not understand why he would suddenly want to turn a fake relationship into a real one. “You don’t love me, right?”
He said he wanted them to be a real couple, but there was no affection in his eyes.
“I don’t want Grace to know we’re fake. She can’t afford to have any mood swings right now,” he said.
It suddenly dawned on her. Her eyelashes quivered slightly as she looked down slowly. It turned out that he made such a sudden decision because of Grace.
Who would have thought that the crown prince of the entertainment industry would love a woman so much that he could go so far for her?
“Will you? You can ask for anything if you’re willing to do it. I’ll do anything for you as long as it’s within my power!” Brian said.
The simple sentence contained so much emotion.
Other women would be elated to hear Brian make such a promise, but Valda Theller’s face contained no joy.
She only squeezed her chopsticks harder, took a deep breath, and said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t say yes.”
For some reason, disappointment flashed across Brian’s heart after hearing the answer.
“You can tell me if you have any special requirements. I can-”
“It’s not what you think.” Valda Theller interrupted him and raised her head. Her round eyes looked straight at the person in front of her. “I was willing to pretend to date you at the beginning because of sympathy. I thought you needed help. I wanted to help you just like how Camille helped me when I was in trouble. Since you helped me afterward, I wanted to repay you. That’s why I was willing to pretend to be your girlfriend until the day you thought it was okay to stop.”
After a pause, she said, “But a real relationship is unlike a fake one. It requires real feelings. It requires me to love you and you to love me. But that’s impossible. I can’t do it.”
“Do you mean you can’t fall for me?” His dark phoenix eyes gazed at her. The melancholy and pain in his eyes made Valda Theller’s heart skip a beat.
Falling in love with Brian had never been difficult.
There were so many things a woman could love about a man like him. If he really wanted a girlfriend, he just had to say it and many women would go after him.
He said, “Valda Theller, it’s not too difficult to fall in love with me, is it? What’s your ideal type? I can adapt myself to fit your ideal type.”
‘My ideal type?’
Valda Theller laughed. ‘He is my ideal type.’
Cold and elegant, yet loyal and affectionate. He could shelter her from any trouble.
Rather, she had fallen in love with him during their time together. She just repeatedly told herself that they were too different and that it would never work out.
However, like a spell, his words make her heartbeat quicken.
“Even if I can fall for you, you can’t fall for me, can you? In that case, how can it be a real relationship?”
she asked as she looked straight at him.
He froze slightly. His long black lashes quivered. “Do you want me to fall for you?”
“Any woman would want the man she loves to fall for her, and I’m no exception. I want my feelings to be reciprocated. If I want to love someone and be in a real relationship with someone, it’ll be on the premise of marriage because I’m hoping I can spend the rest of my life with that person!”
She spoke seriously. The look on her face and the light in her eyes showed her seriousness.
“On the premise of marriage?” He suddenly smiled. Since he lost Grace, he never considered marriage. He even thought that perhaps that was it for the rest of his life. He would not marry any woman or let any woman enter his world.
However, it did not annoy him when Valda Theller talked about having marriage as a precondition.
“Yes, I can date you on the premise of marriage,” he said as his phoenix eyes seemed to have some resolution. “Fall for me, and… make me fall for you Perhaps it would be the baut for us A/A make me fall for you. Perhaps it would be the best for us.”
‘Yeah, Grace will be relieved if I can fall in love with Valda Theller.
I won’t be stuck in a hopeless relationship again, and my parents will be relieved too.
‘But can I really fall in love with the woman in front of me? She doesn’t annoy me, and I even find my time with her relaxing.’
Valda Theller stared at Brian with a shocked gaze. She thought Brian would give up on the idea after she said this. She did not expect him to… say so.
“What… What did you say? You want to date me while considering marriage?” she asked, finding her voice slightly out of tune.
“Yes,” he answered confidently.
“Do you want me to… love you? Will you love me too?” she asked again. “Yes, I will try to fall for you,” he said.
“But can you fall for me?” She was doubtful. After all, he was so in love with Grace. Could he fall for another person?